Gate crash

Seems to me that with a splash would be a way to guarantee a steady pace with Extort to buy you mill time, but it's a matter of personal preference.

I like the idea of it as opposed to losing life while trying to aggressively get their deck to 0.

This is my strategy for pre-release I think. Provided I get some decent cards. I do think the Boros promo card is going to be pretty tough to play against though.

From what i read about sealeds that uou want most things coming in at 3 and 4 mana and whats been spoiled so far simic creatures and the extra unblockable aspect looking real strong even tho I've already paid for orzhav

I'm leaning boros with a splash of green.

Simic seams pretty strong you can get a bunch of cheap creatures in sealed even without a big curve. Just need one creature to have one stat higher. Play it right and it doesn't seem that hard to do.

Go Simic, play good cards. Add Red or Black depending on pulls. Beat face.

I alread had orzhav  preordered after all the spoilers think it is not a bad choice at all

I like orzhov with a splash of red

So I just got home from the midnight prerelease of GateCrash. Wanted to fly on here and give. My impressions before I pass out (getting home at 9am is rough) in the hopes that it may help guide some undecideds to choosing their guild path to victory.

There was an absolutely distinct hierarchy of power in this group of 65 players based on guild. It seems like the gaps will be much less distict in drafts, but in sealed in was easy to see which guild was where on the lineup of power.

#1 - Boros. So fast paced. So beat face. And lots of boros packs opened field medics. First and second place (a box and a half worth of prize packs) went to boros - and here's the scary thing. The guy in second opened a Simic guild box. Boros was so good that he flat-out ditched both of his colors. And it got him 2nd place.

#2 - Orzhov. Nipping close at Boros' heels. It can't quite outpace boros, but those extorts will push it over the top to bleed through the other guilds, and to even squeak by boros if lucky. Any flying creature with extort is insane, because it usually gets to attack AND deal extort damage each turn.

#3 firmly in the middle is Dimir. I played it, myself, and went 4-3. I also played against 4 other Dimir decks, stuck with me in the middle. Still, I had a blast playing it. Cipher is fun and it makes you feel like a real trixster when playing with a bunch of ciphering rogues. Anyway, the solid mix of evasion, control, agro, and removal make Dimir super versitile and land in the middle of the guilds. Oh, and you get to legitimately mill people. I had 5 mill kills this morning.

#4 Gruul. While this guild will be amazing in draft, and its red cards play so well in boros decks, gruul itself struggles in sealed. And it's not that gruul is bad either, its that the others are really too good. Boros out-aggressions it. Orzhov gets a little behind, but more than makes up with extortion. Dimir has enough control to keep up, and can even outpace it with unblockables.

#5 Simic. Sorry Simic. I love the guild. And I think it will do well in drafts. But in sealed... It really just difnt show any promise at all. The entire "low score" table at the end of the event all yielded Simic packs.

So there you have it. Hope that helps someone prep for their prerelease! Have fun. Me go sleepy time now.

Thank you so much for the write up gorzo. I was rolling boros already just hope everyone else underestimates its power.

I went Simic, got sick pulls, and a lot of the games I won because I simply outplayed my opponent, the splash red, while sandbagging mana, scares people, especially when you hint at a burn spell that isn't there. I'm big on head games, if you can scare your opponent out of attacking our dropping a bomb, you've already won.

EDIT: Hands of Binding is nuts BTW. Holy jeebs

Chose orzhov as my guild. Went with an esper build and also ended up pulling a foil Aurelia's fury and a domri rade so I'm happy about that

Wow, what a weekend. I have never played so much mtg I such a condensed amount of time before. Likely never will again, because that was a tad insane doing 3 prereleases in 2 days, but hot DAMN was it fun!

Each of the 3 tourneys had 65 or more people, so 7 rounds a piece. And I'm proud to say that I took 1st place in the Sunday tournament, undefeated! My prize is a whole glorious box of Gatecrash! I'm super stoked!

I love this set. Even the two tourneys I lost in (4/3 both times) I had loads of fun. I hope you all had as much fun as I did!

Time to sleep til Tuesday! Haha

Is it just me, or was this set loaded with good cards? There were very few that I looked at and knew I would never use them. Most looked like they could bolster existing decks. Even commons and uncommons.

My point exactly, a few of my friends kept calling this set new Avacyn Restored, chase Rares and nothing else, they couldn't be more wrong. This set is amazing.

Was at a prerelease event this weekend and Orzhov and Boros dominated. My belief from playing and watching is that when Boros is at full power, it crushes the other guilds. Battalion + impressive creatures = win. I ran Boros with Orzhov splash with some of Boris's weaker cards and a death pact angel and went 4-1.